Marks and Spencer – Greenwich Smoked Bock

Day 8 of the #12BeersOfXmas is upon us and it’s time for something a bit different…

Marks and Spencer – Greenwich Smoked Bock (6%, 500ml bottle)

This one is brewed for Marks and Spencer’s by Meantime Brewing Co. down in London and is quite a new one in their (M&S’s) range of beers brewed for them by decent british breweries.

The beer pours a dark caramel brown with a good sized off-white head and lively carbonation.

The aroma is really quite subtle, I’m getting hints of malt and smokiness but not a lot else to be honest.

This subtlety however is forgotten when you actually taste the beer – it literally slaps you in the taste buds with caramel, smokiness, toffee, smokiness, malt, smokiness oh, and a little more smokiness. Did I mention the smokiness? The closest thing I can equate the overall character of this beer to is the German smoked cheeses you get in the supermarket, it’s like someone dropped a tonne of those all blended up into the mash tun. That said, it’s not so overpowering (compared to other smoked beers I’ve had in the past) that it’s tough to drink – I’m really enjoying sipping on this one and it’s actually fairly refreshing, just like a bock should be.

Overall, I really quite like this. I didn’t expect this level of smokiness, but as I said before it doesn’t make for a hard going drink. I think I’ll be picking this one up again!